The present invention relates to floor treating apparatus and more particularly to a floor scrubbing machine including means for lifting a brush assembly out of engagement with a floor surface.
Heretofore, a wide variety of floor treating machines have been proposed for cleaning hard floor surfaces. Examples of prior proposals may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 1,801,135, entitled FLOOR SCRUBBING MACHINE and issued on Apr. 14, 1931 to Blogg and U.S. Pat. No. 2,121,649 entitled SCRUBBING MACHINE FOR FLOORS AND FLOOR COVERINGS and issued on June 12, 1938 to Beitman.
Such machines are commonly referred to as floor scrubbers. Presently available scrubbers may be self propelled or pushed by the operator. Such machines typically include a solution tank, a soilage recovery system, at least one scrub brush and a squeegee. Such machines are typically battery powered. The scrub brush is positioned at the front of the machine and a cleaning solution is dispensed on the floor. Dirt, grime, oil and grease, etc., are scrubbed from the surface by the brush. The recovery system and squeegee remove the dirty solution or soilage from the floor surface and which is directed to a recovery tank. After passage of the machine, the floor is essentially dry and ready for immediate use.
Floor scrubbers are provided in a variety of sizes to meet the specific requirements of the user. When large floor areas must be cleaned, automatic scrubbing machines which are self contained and self powered are usually selected. Such machines may be capable of cleaning up to thirty thousand square feet in an hour. The prior scrubbers have basically been integral units with little part interchangeability between the various sizes. Problems have been experienced with ease of manufacture, cost of manufacture, reliability and ease of maintenance.
The larger floor scrubbing machines typically employ two vertical axis rotary scrub brushes. The brushes should be raisable off the floor surface when traversing large areas and cleaning is not desired. If the brushes are left in engagement with the floor, and excessive wear may occur. It is also desirable to adjust brush aggressiveness or the pressure that the brush exerts on the floor during operation. This, however, has not been readily controllable with the heretofore proposed scrubbers. Such scrubbers may provide only manual brush height adjustment, if at all, and independent provision is usually not made for controlling brush aggressiveness. With manual systems, the operator cannot adjust brush height from the control panel of the machine.
Also, difficulties are experienced with replacement of worn brushes. In commercial use, the brushes are subject to heavy use and the bristles wear requiring replacement at frequent intervals. Most large automatic scrubber machines require substantial disassembly in order to gain access to the brush elements for replacement. Due to the difficulties experienced in performing required maintenance, such may not be performed at all by the operator or such is delayed excessively. This, of course, may result in ineffective cleaning of the floor surface.
A need exists for a scrubber which has reduced complexity, a reduction in the cost of manufacture, an increase in ease of assembly, an increase in ease of use and in the performance of required maintenance.